


Can You Feel That?

by Banne



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Fictober 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 03:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banne/pseuds/Banne
Summary: Lydia wonders how much pain ghosts can feel. Beetlejuice reluctantly answers.





	Can You Feel That?

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, okay the prompt for this one is "Can you feel this?" I cheated and changed this to that.

Lydia Deetz was used to a certain amount of strangeness in her life. In fact, usually she reveled in it. However, even that had not quite prepared her to see her best friend with several knives sticking out of his hand due to a misguided attempt to speed up cooking. She had convinced him to help by telling him that exactly one batch of snacks could have some kind of Neitherworld twist to it. They would keep it for themselves while the rest would go to Dalia’s party; Mother had wanted Lydia to be more involved socially. Normally, Beetlejuice coming under physical harm wouldn’t bother her – him being dead and all – but this time, he hadn’t made a joke about it. Instead, he had cursed under his breath and removed the knives from his own hand. 

Before his fingers even had a chance to reattach themselves, Lydia found herself asking, “Hey, Beej… Can you feel that?”

“Feel what?” he asked as long-dead tendons reattached themselves thanks to a little juice.

“When you get hurt.”

“Oh.” Lydia could tell that Beetlejuice was a little taken aback by her question, but quickly recovered. “Well Babes, it seemed like you needed a little more help on your side so I wanted to give you a hand!” 

At the joke, his whole hand, newly reattached fingers and all, came flying over to sit on the counter beside Lydia, giving her a thumbs up, then going for a high-five.

Lydia laughed and gave the hand its high-five and it soared back to Beetlejuice and popped back onto his arm. “No Beej! I mean can you feel pain? Like with the knives. I know you didn’t mean that one.”

When Beetlejuice’s face softened and he turned away, Lydia knew she was about to witness one of his rare serious moments, reserved mainly for her. “Nah. Nothing hurts anymore. Or well, everything hurts, in a way. I ain’t going into detail about how I died but… we can all still feel that. A little bit. It’s worse than a little cut with a knife.”

Lydia didn’t know how to react. She honestly hadn’t expected, well, honesty. Going to the other side of the kitchen where Beetlejuice floated a little above the floor, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. “Thank you. For sharing that with me. And telling the truth.”

Beetlejuice froze (and literally went ice cold). Lydia giggled a little at the change in temperature. She was fairly sure she could hear gears grinding as Beetlejuice tried to react. The truth wasn’t something that often came up between them, except when Beetlejuice needed to empty out his closet of skeletons again. Even then, he would only ever share basic facts with her. Slowly, he thawed and returned Lydia’s hug. “Only you, Lydia. I try not to lie to you.”

They stayed like that for a few moments before Beetlejuice sprang back and took on the appearance of a 50s housewife, only far, far dirtier than any housewife Lydia had ever seen a picture of. “Well come on! These puppies ain’t gonna cook themselves!” Suddenly the kitchen was filled with barking and Lydia laughed at the antics which made her bleak life exciting. 

Later, when Lydia heard screaming from the party and she realized that she had mistakenly left the Neitherworld spiced batch downstairs, she was not laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> I loved the Beetlejuice cartoon as a kid and thought, since it's the 30th aniversarry of the movie this year, I would devote the first prompt of Fictober to the Ghost with the Most.


End file.
